The fractious interview with David Frost has been widely broadcast. But this week history buffs could see a different side to Nixon in interviews conducted by his former aide, Frank Gannon, in 1983.

In those he appears relaxed and happy to talk.

"Like him or not, whether you think that his resignation was a tragedy for the nation or that he goes out of town one step ahead of the sheriff, he was a human being," Mr Gannon told the Associated Press news agency this week.

In the interview Nixon talks about the so-called 'smoking gun' conversation that revealed his involvement in the Watergate cover-up.

"Resigning now was the option I didn't want to do, above everything else, personally. I'm a fighter. I just didn't want to quit," Mr Nixon tells Gannon.

"I thought it would be an admission of guilt which of course it was. I thought it would set a terribly bad precedent for the future. I hope no president ever resigns in the future under any circumstances."

The audio tapes were public but no-one had gone through them so meticulously.

Here is a transcript of a conversation with his secretary of state Henry Kissinger and chief of staff Bob Haldeman.

Nixon: Let me say something before we get off the gay thing. I don't want my views misunderstood. I am the most tolerant person on that of anybody in this shop. They have a problem. They're born that way. You know that. That's all. I think they are. Anyway, my point is, though, when I say they're born that way, the tendency is there. [But] my point is that Boy Scout leaders, YMCA leaders, and others bring them in that direction, and teachers. And if you look over the history of societies, you will find, of course, that some of the highly intelligent people ... Oscar Wilde, Aristotle, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, were all homosexuals. Nero, of course, was, in a public way, in with a boy in Rome.

Haldeman: There's a whole bunch of Roman emperors...

Nixon: But the point is, look at that, once a society moves in that direction, the vitality goes out of that society. Now, isn't that right, Henry?

Kissinger: Well -

Nixon: Do you see any other change, anywhere where it doesn't fit?

Kissinger: That's certainly been the case in antiquity. The Romans were notorious -

Haldeman: The Greeks.

Kissinger: - homosexuals...

Nixon: The Greeks. And they had plenty of it ... By God, I am not going to have a situation where we pass along a law indicating, 'Well, now, kids, just go out and be gay.' They can do it. Just leave them alone. That's a lifestyle I don't want to touch...

Kissinger: It's one thing for people to, you know, like some people we know, who would do it discreetly, but to make that a national policy...

And here's another recording of Nixon and Kissinger, this time worried that others in the administration had criticised Russia's policies against Jews.

The two men feared it would derail secret talks with the USSR.

Kissinger: The State Department issued a terrific blast against the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union.

Nixon: Oh, why - didn't we stop that? Goddamn, I thought we just had that little -

Kissinger: I had thought - I reaffirmed - I may ask you to sign -

Nixon: All right. I'll sign a letter.

Kissinger: - That they - any statement concerning the Soviet Union for the next two months has to be cleared here, no matter how trivial.

Nixon: I think you should get the memorandum to me ... first thing in the morning, Henry. It's so important ... I want no statement concerning the Soviet Union of any kind, public statements, to be made without clearance with me.

Haldeman: Unless somebody comes -

Kissinger: With all - you know, I'm Jewish myself, but who are we to complain about Soviet Jews? It's none of our business. If they complain - if they made a public protest to us for the treatment of Negroes, we'd be -

[Aide John] Ehrlichman: Yeah.

Nixon: I know.

Kissinger: You know, it's none of our business how they treat their people.

But of course, it is the memories of Watergate that will forever be the legacy of Richard Nixon.

And 40 years after becoming the first and only president to resign from office, the fascination in the man, his politics and his downfall continues.